People's spending using contactless "tap and go" card payments has topped £100 million in a month for the first time, industry figures show.

A record £109.2 million was spent on contactless cards across March, which is more than triple the £35.3 million worth of payments made using this method in March 2013, industry body the UK Cards Association said.

Six payments are now made every second in the UK by people using contactless card technology, which allows consumers to pay for low-value items just by swiping a card on a reader and usually without the need to key in a pin number.

More than 42.4 million contactless cards are in circulation in the UK.

Some concerns have been raised about the security of contactless cards, but the UK Cards Association said instances of fraud are "extremely rare".